Disparity
by EchoLoco
Summary: Shunsui, Ukitake, and Nanao reflect on Aizen's murder and the state of Soul Society as they prepare to make a dangerous decision.


**I felt bad about what happened in 364, and I felt bad that Nanao wasn't around to help out (she's probably going to feel terrible about it later). So I wrote a little piece set back in the Soul Society arc when Kyouraku, Ukitake, and Nanao were all pretty bad-ass (and also because it's my favorite squad leaders' collective birthdays next week). I hope to follow it up with their thoughts on the Winter War and Starrk, but I'm going to wait a few more chapters until I know WTF is going on with that...**

* * *

An uneasy feeling tugged at Kyouraku's consciousness as he looked up. He knew the other high-ranking shinigami who had been allowed into the area, to see what he was now seeing, probably felt uneasy as well. He was quite sure it wasn't for the same reason, however.

For Kyouraku Shunsui, feeling uneasy had become familiar. So much that at times, he hardly noticed it anymore. Of course, there were other times that he felt it intensely. The feeling had nagged him for more than a century, one of few feelings that stuck with him, impressed itself upon him these days. Most of the smaller, more basic feelings stopped occupying his mind hundreds of years ago, after many more hundreds of years of feeling them and being desensitized to them. There fore a moment and gone the next.

But this uneasiness that plagued him should have been gone with the very same thing that made his peers so unusually uneasy. Aizen Sousuke was dead. That should have been that.

The creepy feeling he felt a little bad for having when he first met the young man... the inexplicable anger he felt towards him when Lisa disappeared... the incredibly disturbing feeling that he sometimes genuinely liked Aizen when he was around him despite the fact that he couldn't stand to think about him otherwise.

Those feelings should have disappeared with Aizen's bland but powerful reiatsu; washed away in the cascade of blood that was dripping down the tower in front of Shunsui. But those feelings, which he couldn't help associating with Aizen, weren't always focused on the bespectacled captain's presence. Perhaps that was what had made Shunsui uncomfortable about his young peer all along - the fact that sometimes his presence and his essence seemed to be in different places at once. It didn't add up.

Nothing added up about this, he thought to himself as he tugged his hat over his eyes and turned away.

* * *

Nanao searched her division headquarters for particular shinigami. There had been a few who had earned themselves disciplinary action recently, but she had been too distracted by the ryoka invasion to dole it out. Now, she had the perfect idea.

It wasn't difficult to find the ones she was looking for, as the entire was squad was confined to division grounds unless ordered otherwise. Her captain's hesitation to kill the ryoka boy had been enough to convince Nanao, who handled most division business, to keep her squad back from the fighting for the time being. She told them they were on defensive duty following the "ryoka attack on their division," and now she would bank on that excuse one more time.

"Matsuo, Tarumegaro, and Ritsuko!" she shouted into the bustling mess hall. The three partners in crime presented themselves before her, and she explained their task. The pavement and walls in the courtyard were in dire need of repair by shinigami with enough kidou skill to manipulate the spirit particles correctly. Luckily, kidou was Nanao's speciality, and because she trained the Eighth Division, it had become theirs as well. The trio, two men and one woman, shuffled out to the courtyard to pay for what Nanao had taken down in the paperwork as dereliction of duty. Of course, what she called it herself would have been "acting like Shunsui," but she couldn't very well write them up simply for behaving like their captain, even if he did come into work drunk and then laze about all day.

Still, he had proven in the fight against the ryoka that, unlike his subordinates, such behavior did not impair his abilities. He was an excellent fighter - not that such a fight had allowed him to show it - and even more, a master strategist and an expert at resolving conflict before it came to a fight if possible.

The ryoka boy had been lucky to run into her captain first, Nanao thought. Even if he had only been a first-year student, he would have defied orders to achieve peace over violence, but thousands of years of leadership had given him the wisdom to know when such a thing was possible, and to get away with it afterwards.

Come to think of it, Nanao felt she herself had been quite lucky to run into Kyouraku before any other captain. Other students in her class had been picked for squads early, but due to her unnaturally young age, Nanao showed up to graduation without a division to go to after. One of her teachers promised to write a recommendation to the Kidou Corps for her if she didn't get placed, but it never came to that. As she walked across the platform to receive her certificate, a booming voice from the captains' viewing stand had exclaimed an obnoxious "kawaii!" She blushed brightly but had almost forgotten later as she stood talking excitedly with her friends. That is, until the same voice came up to her group, proclaimed that she was the spitting image of someone called Lisa-chan, pinched her cheek, and told her to show up for duty at the Eighth the next day.

She had hated the idea of working for Kyouraku for about three weeks, until she had seen him take a terrible risk to attempt a soul burial and a hollow purification at the same time for a little boy whose mother had recently become a hollow and who jumped to defend her from Shunsui's blades. Not wanting the young soul to see his mother struck down, even in that form, he had left himself completely open so he could use the hilt of his second blade to send the boy to Soul Society. Only one other shinigami could even have attempted such a thing. As Nanao watched with some of the other young recruits who had come to see what should have been a routine soul burial, and saw her annoying new captain risk his life for the peace-of-mind of a boy who wouldn't remember the event in a few minutes anyways, she dedicated her loyalty to her compassionate, strong, and honorable captain.

Nanao thought back to the boy with the strange arm. He had blown her captain's haori off and carved up their division grounds. He was strong. He had asked Kyouraku to stand aside multiple times before he resorted to violence - he certainly had no more interest in taking life than Kyouraku did. And the reason he had given for trying to save the Kuchiki girl, risking his life for the sake of something a friend held dear, was honorable. Down to his wavy brown hair and the magenta stripe on his shirt, the boy reminded her of Kyouraku, and she was glad he had let him live.

After a century of working with him, her captain was just the same as that first month so long ago.

* * *

Still feeling troubled about his suspicious feelings at the scene of Aizen's murder, Shunsui sought out a comforting presence. Ukitake, he knew, was still tending to matters with the ryoka and the boy from Fourth Squad who had aided his imprisoned subordinate. If he was being honest with himself, however, Ukitake wasn't the first person he would have gone to in this circumstance. True to his sword's release, Ukitake had facets to his personality. Over the long time they had been friends, Shunsui had come to know every facet in detail and trusted that each aspect of his friend's essence was good and true.

But there was someone whose essence had struck Shunsui from the very moment they had met because it was unified; consistent. His lieutenant was unusual in that whenever he thought of her, whenever he was near her, whenever he learned anything new about her, it was always consistent. Every fact and feature of Ise Nanao reinforced the others. Her different actions could all be traced back to the same careful reasoning, her morals and her advice never contradicting. Shunsui could think about a thing she had said to him and picture her exactly as she had said it in his mind, and reach out for her reiatsu to find it exactly as it had been at that moment.

Not to say that she wasn't interesting or unique. The level of her reiatsu would spike and drop as she demonstrated kidou for their squad; her facial expressions would range from the disapproving glares she gave him to the pleasant, cautious smiles she wore when she thought no one was watching her as she watched the cherry blossoms fall. But the quality of her reiatsu and of her demeanor never, ever wavered.

Shunsui needed that kind of consistency right now, to know that there were things and people that were true and steadfast. And if he knew his steadfast lieutenant, she would be hard at work. He found her in their division's entry courtyard, directing some of the unseated members in repairing the damage that the curious ryoka boy had done.

"Nanao-chan," he remarked simply.

She turned to face him. "The ryoka has been delivered to Fourth Division. Lieutenant Kotetsu says he'll live. I'm sorry I questioned your judgement on the matter, Captain."

"Ah, dutiful Nanao-chan, proper as always. No apology is needed; after all, I wasn't following orders."

"As usual," Nanao replied with a wry smile.

"As usual," Shunsui repeated, as if the phrase reassured him.

"And as usual, you were right, sir. The situation was not as simple as the orders suggested."

Nodding, Kyouraku folded his arms and, glancing over the courtyard, gave Nanao an approving smile.

"Was there something you needed, Captain?"

Shunsui grinned. "I just came to oversee the work, my darling Nanao-chan."

"Everything's fine here. You can feel free to go nap or drink or whatever you had planned for this afternoon."

"I could, Nanao-chan," he replied with a mischievous wink, "but like you said, everything's _fine_ here."

That earned him a light smack from her fan, but the smack was consistent with what he knew of her, and it was the most comfortable he had felt in the last few days.

* * *

Ukitake strode through the Fourth Division infirmary, careful to stay out of the way of the squad members rushing back and forth to perform their various tasks. He was quite impressed by the relative order that they were managing to keep, despite the influx of injuries the ryoka were sending their way, and the apparent absence of Captain Unohana. The Third Seat seemed to be taking charge, and Ukitake approached him.

"Captain Ukitake!" Iemura exclaimed. "I'm sorry for the disorder. Do you need more medication for your cough, sir?"

"Oh no, Iemura-san, I'm fine. I actually came to see your captain, and to check up on some friends who may be in your care."

"I see. Well, the captain is currently taking care of the... um... situation with Captain Aizen. But I can help you find your friends in the meantime. If you can tell me when they were injured, I can figure out which ward they're being treated it."

Ukitake chuckled nervously. "Actually, I believe they're being held in your jail, which is what I came to talk to Unohana-senpai about."

"Oh. Harunobu-san!"

A brown-haired shinigami came from the next room. "Yes, Third Seat Iemura?"

"Please show Captain Ukitake to where the prisoners are being held."

Ukitake followed the young man past rooms of injured shinigami. The infirmary was far under capacity, but it still pained him to see so many there. He was a frequent visitor, and usually the only other occupants were a handful of recruits who had injured themselves training or a fairly regular group of Eleventh Division members who, in all fairness, should have known what to expect from their reckless violence.

Now, there were a number of shinigami of all ranks and from all divisions, injured in battle, and in battle with the ryoka who seemed to Ukitake to be at worst harmless... and at best, absolutely right in their intentions. Of course, orders were orders regardless of intentions, and Ukitake decided that was what hurt the most. Throughout his millenia as a captain, he had heard many orders from the Central 46 and from the Commander General that conflicted with what he thought was right, just, fair, or merciful. He had disobeyed and countermanded several such orders, and been reprimanded accordingly. He had the feeling that this time was different, though. The orders were more ruthlessly unjust this time, the violation of the orders more drastic, and the potential for punishment much more severe. It was a difficult choice whether he would put the Gotei 13 or his subordinate's life and his own honor first, a choice he hated to make no matter how many times he did it. In truth, he knew which he would choose if it really came down to it, but he would have to see if it did, and it was the waiting that really killed him. Visiting Rukia's friends and attempted saviors was as much for his own comfort as theirs as he reminded himself what the stakes really were.

They arrived at the division jail as Ukitake mused. It was really more of a cell tucked in the basement of the infirmary, and occupied much less often than the infirmary. It was full now, and only served to remind Ukitake how dire the current situation was.

Harunobu left him in the presence of his Third Seats, who seemed to think that their captain's order to get help for the young healer and the Shiba included a twenty-four hour watch. The pair somehow managed to look both haggard from lack of sleep, and as boisterous as ever. Hanatarou brightened when Ukitake asked how he was doing, and he noticed that all of the prisoners seemed a little more up than their situation warranted. His former lieutenant's brother was cracking jokes, and while the two he didn't know were sitting quietly, they didn't look too morose. They did, however, ask him if he knew anything about a girl named Inoue - it seemed Ganju and Hanatarou had filled them in on Rukia, Ichigo, and Yoruichi.

Ukitake had to admit to knowing nothing about the whereabouts or well-being of Inoue. He knew it would be disappointing news for Ishida and Sado, but he was unprepared for how much it affected Ganju, who had only known her for a short time, and Hanatarou, who hadn't met her at all. It was the same as the regard that the ryoka held for Rukia, risking their lives and even their souls for her after knowing her for a few months. It was the kind of selflessness and team spirit he would be proud to see among members of his own squad, and it was then that he made his decision.

After visiting with the prisoners for a while, he sought out the hidden training ground of his old friend, Shihouin Yoruichi.

* * *

It comforted Kyouraku to know that his oldest friend also felt something was wrong, and was going to do something about it. Even better that his ever-dependable (and quite charming) lieutenant corroborated.

It comforted Ukitake to know that each and every time he defied orders and stood up for what he thought was just, his best friend would stand beside him.

It comforted Ise to know that despite the suspicion cast on her position as a Vaizard's replacement, despite her usual task of paperwork over battle, and despite her age and relative inexperience, the oldest and strongest captains in Soul Society would let her stand beside them in their battle for justice.


End file.
